SEBI v. Samir Kothari, Jitendra N. Kewalramani and others (front running of Sheth family trust orders, settlement, 2024)

Settled

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 8, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, in a single reading of the order; an independent second reading of 60 SEBI records agreed on every field for 56, the four misses being penalty amounts; a later sample of 50 of the SEBI records added on 9 October agreed on every field for 46. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

Report an error in this record (sebi-90051-front-running-2024) by email

In December 2024 SEBI settled front running proceedings against six individuals and a family HUF connected to an authorised person of the broker Angel One. They paid settlement amounts totalling Rs 3,48,99,371, disgorged further sums and accepted six-month debarments, without admitting or denying the allegations.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

—

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

—

Alleged gain

—

Penalty as published

34.9m INR

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars. This regulator states penalties in INR. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

SEBI chief general manager Santosh Shukla issued a settlement order on 19 December 2024. The applicants were Samir Kothari, Kuntal Goel, Jitendra N. Kewalramani, the Jitendra N. Kewalramani HUF, Dipika J. Kewalramani and Pallavi Shailesh Nayak. A companion settlement by the broker Angel One Limited was recorded in a separate order.

A show cause notice of January 2024 alleged that between January 2021 and October 2022 the applicants and others placed orders on NSE just ahead of three large clients, the Bharat Kanaiyalal Sheth Family Trust, the Ravi Kanaiyalal Sheth Family Trust and the Arjun Discretionary Trust, and squared them off. It alleged that Mr Kewalramani, an authorised person of Angel One, learned of the impending orders directly or indirectly, that Mr Kothari, his employer, and Mr Goel, who held the information and had frequent calls with Mr Kothari, were the source, and that the others traded on the information in accounts related to him, breaching section 12A of the SEBI Act and the fraud and unfair trade practice regulations.

The applicants asked to settle without admitting or denying the findings. The approved terms were settlement amounts of Rs 57,20,000 (Mr Kothari), Rs 55,90,000 (Mr Goel), Rs 64,29,371 (Mr Kewalramani) and Rs 57,20,000 each for the HUF, Ms Kewalramani and Ms Nayak, Rs 3,48,99,371 in all. Mr Kothari and Mr Kewalramani also paid Rs 50,00,000 each, and Mr Goel Rs 1,06,25,679.95, as disgorgement with simple interest at 12 per cent from the transaction date.

Each applicant accepted a six-month debarment from the securities market, which the order treats as part of the settlement terms rather than a voluntary step, and the first three also agreed not to be associated with any listed entity or registered intermediary. SEBI agreed to take no further action over the alleged violations, subject to the right to act if a representation proves untrue or an undertaking is breached. A settlement carries no finding of violation.

The record does not show the trading profits alleged, how the information moved beyond the order's account, or any criminal case. The disgorgement and interest sums are stated in rupees and are not included in the settlement total recorded here.

This library tags the matter as front running. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the order.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Front running — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2024-12-19 SEBI order

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEBI order
• Order (PDF)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added October 8, 2026. submit a correction.